[Video] | Wednesday afternoon

[anuglyman]

[A smug-looking Rumplestiltskin is back on the network. After being gone, to anyone who might have noticed (read: Belle, and possibly Loki), since Friday.]

Well, that was a bit of an adventure. It's good to be back. Even better, though, to have discovered something of import.

[He turns the crystal's viewer away from himself, to show where he is: the home of the murdered woman from the week before. Some people might recognize it, but most people probably won't. Thankfully, they have narration.]

This is the home of Nadia, that lovely young woman who died last week. In her own home, no less. In this very room. I have discovered the identity of her murderer. Behold.

[He's enjoying this, can you tell? There's a pause, and then the room swirls with purple smoke. When it clears, said young woman is there. She's sitting in her living room with another familiar face, the librarian page who turned up dead Thursday with two others. They're drinking tea. Nadia picks up the dishes and moves off to the kitchen with them. The visual follows her, as does her killer. They're chatting, though the vision has no sound, so no one can tell what about. As Nadia finishes the dishes, her back to her friend, he walks up behind her and slits her throat neatly. Thankfully for the potential children watching, their backs are to the video feed, so all anyone sees is the woman crumpling to the ground. Rumple even politely turns the feed away before there's more than a little blood.]

Very interesting, wouldn't you say? They were apparently friends, and he is acting in quite an un-librarian fashion. Even more interesting, given he turned up dead, not two days later. Food for thought, is it not?

[And with that, he turns off the feed-- and gets the hell out of that house before someone shows up to arrest him for trespassing on a crime scene, no matter how old. He'll be responding to things in a minute... once he's someplace a bit safer than here.]

Comments

[video]

[girlinasquirrelsuit]

This didn't seem like slightly sensitive information, mac?

[She errs on the side of a certain amount of open communication, but the gory bit and the starting a panic aspect strikes her as a bit over the top.]

[Video]

[anuglyman]

[A few minutes later, with trees in the background, Rumple still looks fairly pleased with himself.]

I doubt anyone would take me seriously if I simply described it. At least now the authorities will look into it instead of merely brushing me off, and certainly many of you will have your own theories, having seen it first-hand.

[He doesn't know about her alter-ego, since he was gone during that announcement, but he can still guess most of them will have ideas.]

[girlinasquirrelsuit]

How seriously are they gonna take this? We have the same problem at home. My partner can grab hold of anybody's brain and make 'em confess to every wrong thing they ever did, but for all anybody knows, he could be makin' it so they say what he wants, not the truth. How do I know how that doodad of yours works, or what your angle is?

[anuglyman]

It's magic and no one here is particularly used to it. I imagine there will be plenty of questions. But much of what I showed can be verified, so that will help, and I did find the boy's body.

[Really, even if they don't trust him, at least they'll know he can be useful. He's got himself out there. Whether it will help him in the fashion he hopes it will... that remains to be seen.]

[girlinasquirrelsuit]

If you say so, Sparky. I'm just the voice of experience here. Screwy powers and the established legal system don't usually mix so well.

[anuglyman]

I admit, I have in the past operated entirely outside established legal systems... I could, I suppose, do so again.

[He sounds dubious, though. He'd like a good legal system to work with... more fun to find the loopholes, that way.]

We'll see how this pans out. I can manage either way.

[girlinasquirrelsuit]

...I like you. You can stay.

[video]

[hypospraying]

[Christine really didn't like seeing that.]

How did you get the scene to play out like that?

[Video]

[anuglyman]

[The video response, when it picks up, shows trees in the background. Apparently he's left the city for a bit.]

Magic, dearie. It was an illusion, tied into the past. Tricky, but definitely worthwhile.

[Video]

[hypospraying]

I'd say so.

[Though, hey, she's not a dearie.]

Too bad we can't tell from it if the guy was being mind-controlled or not, though.

[Video]

[anuglyman]

Is that an option here?

[Because given the death afterwards, and the suddenness of it... if he had to guess, that's pretty much what he'd nailed it as.]

[Video]

[hypospraying]

Which one, the mind-control option or the he's-just-a-murderer option?

[Video]

[anuglyman]

The first one. The he's-just-a-murderer one is always an option. Are there people here who can do that kind of thing? Besides those of us from the ship, that is.

[Video]

[tallymarks]

Where have you been? Is that what you've been doing? Working magic?

[Belle looks - well, a little like she's struggling not to be sick, actually. It's not every day you see a coworker slit someone's throat, after all.]

[Video | Private]

[anuglyman]

[This one, Rumple replies to with less smugness and more apology. A lot less smugness, in fact, because whoops, she sounds upset... and that's not really what he'd meant to do. Not exactly. Not for her.]

Actually, I worked one spell and then was portaled out of the world and into another by the ship's intelligence. I'm... not really sure how long I was trapped there.

[It was enough time to work out how to adjust the spell to not warp reality, anyway. Ten times over, figure it out. He'd gotten pretty bored.]

[Video | Private]

[tallymarks]

Nearly a week. I'd started to worry you weren't coming back.

[There's a bit of a hitch to that - even with him returned, the thought still frightens her.

Frightens her more, now, with the memory of him leaving for Neverland without any expectation of return still fresh in her mind.]

[Video | Private]

[anuglyman]

[Yeah, no more smugness at all. He looks decidedly chagrined, and unhappy that she had to worry. If he sees that ship's avatar again, they will be having words.]

I'm sorry, Belle. I had no idea... I certainly had no idea I'd be pulled away like that, to begin with, let alone for so long. But I'm back now, and I know how to keep that from happening again.

[Video | Private]

[tallymarks]

Good.

[Too many of the people who disappear never come back, and while she'd coped well enough before he arrived, coping with losing him again...

That might be a bit beyond her.]

Was it really them we saw? Or could it have been someone using an illusion?

[It had fooled everyone when Cora had done it, after all.]

[Video | Private]

[anuglyman]

I'll be home soon.

[That's a promise. From the looks of it, he might even be heading back into the city already, now, to find her.

... And then he'll be mostly stuck there, unless he goes out in disguise or transformed, for a while... oopsie. Well, Belle can get used to having him around again?]

I don't see why anyone would bother putting an illusion in a private residence on the off-chance someone will try to see back in time. But if that were the case, I think there would be leftover magic... and I certainly didn't feel any.

[He could be wrong there, of course; it's been a long time. But he likes to think he's fairly sensitive to magic in general.]

Video

[genoshas_general]

[Wanda's familiar enough with powers to not bother asking how he did. Besides, she's got a bigger question on her mind right now.] Can you do it again?

[Video]

[anuglyman]

Considering that was the second time I'd done it... yeah.

[Smug face, right here. He'd obviously had to test it out himself, first, before he showed the whole network.]

Of course, I'd have to get back inside, which may be tricky, unless done in the company of the authorities.

[Video]

[genoshas_general]

But can you follow up with the killer's murder?

[Video]

[anuglyman]

That one would be more difficult, I believe, since there were more variables involved... but if I could get access to the site where he died, I could probably manage it.

[It's getting access to the site that would be the hardest part, really. The only way he made it into this one the first time was with bribery, and this second time... because it's where Nowhere deposited him again.]

[Video]

[genoshas_general]

Which I'm guessing would take some persuasion?

[Video]

[anuglyman]

Or some sneaking. I do know where the site is, after all, but it is probably blocked off by more than just construction tape by now, given what I told the sheriffs about it.